WEST BRIDGEWATER – After waiting three long years for a life-saving kidney donation, Jenny Williams had to wait a bit longer.

The West Bridgewater wife and mother of two was wheeled into an operating room at Tufts Medical Center in Boston Friday afternoon. Williams, 50, and her husband David had been there since 6:30 that morning.

“They brought me in a little after 4 p.m., and said ‘we are not going to start cutting or doing anything invasive until we know it’s a good kidney for you,’ ” said Jenny Williams in a phone interview from her hospital room on Monday.

“I was just sitting there and starting to panic when my doctor (Dr. Jeffrey Cooper), gave me a thumbs up and said it was on its way. I told them not to drop it!” Williams said.

She still has some pain from the operation but hopes to be released from the hospital later this week. “It was a really good match. It was a beautiful match,” Williams said. Two ultrasounds have already been performed to look at her new kidney. She is grateful to her team of doctors and nurses who, she said, has made the process so much easier.

“This is still like a dream,” Williams said. “I can’t believe after all this I finally have a kidney. I’ve been on the list waiting for three years.”

For Williams, the past 36 months have been an endless cycle of painful and time-consuming dialysis treatments. She was born with one functioning kidney. Her brother Peter Hanson donated a kidney in 1990 when she was 26. That kidney was expected to be good for 10 years. It’s lasted Williams more than double that time.

“It lasted 21 years and I am hoping I can get 21 years out of this kidney,” she said. The kidney was donated from a woman who had a stroke and was alive at the time it was donated. She has since passed on.

“I want to thank the donor family with all my heart. I am forever grateful.”

Peter Hanson and his wife Diane went to visit Jenny on Sunday. “She looked good. I can tell she is feeling a lot better already,” he said. Hanson said he and his family had all prayed for the woman who donated her kidney as well as their family. “There is a tremendous need for organ donors and hopefully more people will become organ donors.”

On Sunday, the congregation at the First Church of West Bridgewater prayed for Jenny and her family as well as the donor and her family. She is a deacon there.

“Jenny’s request was that we first remember the family of the donor,” said pastor Dr. Carol Ashton. The church became active in searching for organ donors as well, thanks to a request from the youngest member of the Williams family.

Page 2 of 2 - Williams’ 6-year-old daughter Jocelyn launched a poster campaign trying to find a kidney donor for her mom. Those posters read, “Mom Jenny needs a kidney.” Williams and her husband adopted Jocelyn and Joshua, 9, when they were infants.

“We’re just floating on a cloud. So many pieces have come together. She’s been on our prayer list for years,” Ashton said.

Williams’ children and husband came to visit her Monday. “My son said we just want you to come home. My daughter said we want you to get better so we can play with you. I have had the best support system.”

Jennifer Bray may be reached at jbray@enterprisenews.com or follow her on Twitter @JenniferB_ENT.